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A University within a very sort after area but lacks a few vital necessities

I started at Surrey University last October (2009) to do a BSC in Psychology. The grades to get into Surrey have just become higher so I had to get two As and a B at A-Level to do Psychology when in other universities it can be much lower with 2 Bs and a C. From this I thought it must be an excellent place in which to take my degree especially if they are doing a placement year. I had been to the Open Days for Exeter, Nottingham, Cardiff, Bristol and Surrey. Surrey was the University that straight when I drove onto the campus I thought this is the one. It has the most beautiful grounds with a beautiful lake which is where I spent most of my time revising for my first year exams.

***Where is Surrey University***

It is in the county town of Guildford. Guildford is a very highly thought of area with a beautiful and historic shopping area and a beautiful river running through it. The university is set on a close knit campus which is only about a 15 minute walk from the town.

***Amenities that the university offers***

It is a very convenient campus with a post office, a small convenience store called Amigos, a laundrette, a night club called Rubix, Starbucks, Pizza Man, regular bus stops, University shop, a cocktails bar, holes in the wall to retrieve money, Natwest bank and more.

There are also many shops, clubs and bars in the main town which is very close by.

***Surrey Sports Park***

The one thing that was a let down when I started at the university was the gym. Luckily I was told that in 2010 there would be a brand new sports complex open to students as well as the public. Students can get a very reasonable yearly or quarterly membership. Students can also get a membership for just specific areas like for swimming, or squash or rock climbing etc. The sports park is around a 20 minute walk from the university but there is a regular bus to and from.

The new sports complex is called Surrey Sports Park and it is magnificent. The swimming pool is Olympic size length so they have people coming over to train for the Olympics in it. There are around 4 squash and badmington courts. There are many tennis courts and other outside courts. There is an indoor rockclimbing wall, plus a huge gym. The gym is fantastic for students, you just have to swipe your university card and it comes up with all your information with height, weight, goals etc, so it is so quick and easy. There are also many rooms used for various activities including:

I wanted to include a lot about this new Surrey Sports Park because a lot of people do not know about it and it is partially run by the University so for somebody looking for somewhere sporty Surrey is becoming far more diverse for this.

Also available in the sports park is Starbucks and a new restaurant called Bench Bar (which in my opinion is lovely - great steak and chips!) Students get 10% off food.

For more information on the sports park go to: www.surreysportspark.co.uk

***Accommodation***

There are five bands (types/levels) of rooms:* Band A - are shared bedrooms - the cheapest (but space is divided by the two parts of the rooms being on different levels so they are split by a flight of stairs) approximately £60 a week* Band B - These are single rooms which are not shared but they are particularly small - approximately £76 per week* Band C - These are slightly bigger single rooms still without an ensuite - approximately £86 per week* Band D - These rooms are more modern and most of which have ensuites - they are approximately £106 per room* Band E - these are enhanced ensuite rooms - so they are larger than normal rooms (but this doesn't mean they are massive - you couldn't fit a double bed in them and still have room for the desk and wardrobe) approximately £130 per week.

There are four courts of Bands A, B and C rooms which do not include an ensuite. These courts are called Cathedral, Surrey, Battersea and Stag Hill.

There are a couple of courts off campus but they are a good half an hour walk away.

There is also a court purely for international students but they also get mixed in to other courts. Whichever is their preference. Then there are the slightly more luxurious courts with an en-suite called Twyford and University Court and Manor Park (which is off campus). There are only a small number of the ensuite rooms on campus and I was very lucky to get one. However I was rather unfortunate that my entire floor at university was entirely boys apart from one other Portuguese girl. I found this quite easy to settle into because boys are so easy and laid back, however as the semester went on it did become rather lonely not having girls on the floor.

The accommodation at Surrey is self-catered which was something I was looking forward to - cooking for myself. However the state that some people left the kitchens in were an absolute disgrace and I got put off cooking several times. One guy on my floor would cut up raw chicken on the work surface without a chopping board. Then he would leave the knife out and they wouldn't get washed for days. I would then being the only person that was bothered by this so I had to go around after everybody cleaning. Not fun when you've just cleaned up and go in an hour later and it is a state again. The worst thing I found about the accommodation was that it never got checked on by anybody from the university, I actually rang somebody to say what a disgrace it was because whenever I walked into the kitchen in the morning there was a stench of alcohol and smashed glass on the floor and just general mess. There were cleaners that came three times a week but they were allowed to choose not to clean it if it was so bad which happened to us rather a lot. However the kitchen I had to share between ten people was a reasonable size with two large fridge and freezers and two ovens, a microwave, kettle and table and chairs.

***Lectures***

This is where my main disappointments to the university come from. However from a lot that has been on the news recently I think it maybe common of many universities especially for the first year students. I had around 6 lectures a week if I was lucky which were each an hour long. So six hours a week of teaching... I was shocked by this lack of teaching. Yes I wanted to have a great first year going out like most students but I was also not pleased at the amount of university fees that were required for so little teaching. I know Psychology is quite a reading based subject so I had to do a lot of the work in my room but I think it is unacceptable to pay such huge university fees for barely any lectures. Plus to top it off there would be times that lecturers didn't turn up, or they forgot our hand outs, or could not get their computer to work so could not display their power point and the list goes on. You would have thought by now that lecturers would understand the new equipment provided to them but they still do not.

There are numerous lecture theatres which are all newly developed and there are yet more in the process of being built. So there is nothing wrong with the facilities at Surrey University.

***Placements***

Surrey is one of the only universities to put in place a placement year for a lot of the courses. This drew me into looking at the university for the first time. This is such a great opportunity for students because it allows a possible job at the end of it that they may not have had without the placement. Plus for many students it allows them to see whether a specific area is for them or not. For example, I am between clinical and occupational psychology as well as having an interest in forensic psychology. So for my placement year I have already organised working in an all male psychiatric unit (which I am rather scared and excited about at the same time). But it will show me whether that is or is not an area I will be interested in thereafter.

***International students***

I was shocked at how many international students are at surrey, I would say well over 50% of the students are international. This is probably because Surrey is quite close to London (only a half an hour train journey away).

International students attending the university in my opinion are slightly over catered for. For example, there is a food shop purely for international students which is of course necessary for their different food likings. However they also have their own Turkish Café for the Turkish students which I think is unnecessary since there is already a Starbucks on campus and it sort of segregates the Turkish students from the rest of the students. Whereas surely in the society we are in now Universities should be trying to integrate international students with the rest of the students. It just seems very bizarre.

***My Overall Verdict***

I wanted to go away to a university that was far enough away from home for me to have that 'away from home experience.' But most people at the university who are English live only a maximum of half an hour away from the university. Whereas I am a good three and a half hours away so I do feel home sick from time to time when all my friends go home at the weekend and I cannot. However it does mean that I can crack on with work and I have that amazing sports park to go to.

But typically it is a more than standard university besides the number of lectures being on the poor side they still manage to get great results from the students but I think this is purely down to hard working students. Like I said previously in the review Surrey University has upped the grade boundaries to let students into the university. So the students with higher grades are usually those that put all the effort and hard work into getting the results they want.

If Surrey University was an hour closer to my home then I would be far more inclined to enjoy my experience there a lot more. However I shouldn't overly complain because I do get quite frequent visits from friends and family up there. My mum frequently pops up to see me saying she misses me (or so she says) I reckon she is just after some fab retail therapy since the shopping in Guildford is really lovely. Most people love that it is an old cobbled street and despite having lots of new upmarket shops it has that lovely old feel to it as well. So Guildford is overall a really lovely place to be living in and the University's grounds are truly spectacular for a university. But taking all factors into account with my main disappointment being the amount of lectures I receive and the accommodation not being checked at all whilst I was living in halls I will give it 3 out of 5 stars.

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Brilliant place to study

Well I've just come to the end of my first at the University of Surrey. The University is located in the South East of England in the centre of Guildford. It currently accommodates approximately 15,000 students and 2,500 staff. Prior to becoming the University of Surrey it was known as Battersea College of Technology.

The university itself is an excellent place to study with a dynamic atmosphere and plenty of amenities of campus. The campus student's union is a known as Rubix and provides good entertainment most nights of the week. The bar has recently refurbished and is known as chancellors. This sells drinks and reasonable priced bar food.

Campus is homed to all first year who receive halls of residence and the majority of final years who opt for it. This is a distinct advantage over rival universities. However, the newest residence, Manor Park, is not actually situated on the university campus. On campus accommodation is priced between £60 and £120 per week. It is worth noting that Guildford is very expensive when it comes to renting away from campus and that contract will run for six months including summer when students are not there.

The University campus is just ten minutes walk from town or 5 minutes walk from campus. A frequent bus service links the campus to all parts of Guildford. The town is relatively busy and features most key shops and many others. The shopping centre is two floors and is called the friary centre. The two then features two main shopping streets that run in parallel to one another. These are called the high street and north street.

In conclusion, the university is brilliant academically, situated well to the rest of town and is an all round enjoyable place to study. The University is very much summed up by its motto "work hard and play hard."

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Fab :-)

I am currently in my final year at the University of Surrey and feel I have experienced what the uni has to offer so here we go:

Location: The uni is situated in Guildford, close to both London and the coast. Guildford itself is a very cute town, with a cobbled high street, sweet buildings and lots of green spaces. However it is also very much a student town with plenty of places to eat drink and be merry! Being so close to London is great- a return from Guildford to Waterloo with a Young Person's card costs £7.90 or a travelcard is £9.50 and the journey takes about 30/35 minutes.

Accommodation: I only have experience of certain accommodation blocks on campus, but the different halls are split into rent bands so you decide how much you want to pay. I stayed in Level C which was £70 a week, but I believe is now around £77 a week. For this I got a large bedroom with my own sink, toilets and showers were shared 2 between 7. This was very reasonable, the only downside was the kitchen being tiny. This was in Cathedral court, however you could opt for University court where you do not get your own sink, but have a much bigger kitchen. The next band up, band D, I believe is about £90 a week and you get an on-suite bathroom. All halls have a cleaner that visits 3 times a week and all bills are included in the rent.

Societies/Clubs:Surrey offers loads of societies to get involved in. These include lots of sports clubs, 'Country' clubs (ie. North American, Iranian, Italian, African-Caribbean), music societies, stage crew etc etc. If the chosen society you want does not exist you are encouraged to create it!!!

Library:The library at uni is fantastic. It has 6 floors all with designated silent and group zones. The library is equipped with texts, journals, dissertations, thesis, multimedia and the staff are always very helpful. There is also an 'online library' where the majority of journals are kept electronically, as well as some books. You can also renew and request library loans on your online account.

Leisure:The Union, otherwise known as Rubix, is the biggest club in Guildford. The main nights are Wednesdays (Citrus) and Friday (FLirt) and every other Friday there is a themed night. Examples of this are Fetish night, School Disco, Beach Party, Pyjama Party, F Party (ie dress as something beginning as F) and there are also acts brought in such as S Club 3, Scouting For Girls, Shiela's Wheels (don't ask!!) and Rachael Stevens.Also on campus are plenty of places to eat and drink. Chancellor's (Channies) is the main pub and does food at very reasonable prices. Channies also have things a night like pub quizzes, cocktail evenings and open mic nights. Other places to go include Roots, which hosts bingo evenings and Wates House, which hosts comedy evenings. Other places to eat included Rushes, which make very yummy baguetts, Seasons and Sorrentos.

However striking further from campus you have the facilities in town. The clubs are Harpers and Dusk (I would recommend Harpers), numerous bars include Ha!Ha!, Five and Lime, Slug and Lettuce, Farenheit 55, Pews and loads of restaurants- Wagamamma, Giraffe, TGIs, Zizzi etc etc.

I think a really important aspect of Surrey uni is that you get the opportunity to do both a semester abroad in the exchange programme and a professional training year. I did a management programme, so please feel free to message me for further info on the course.

Overall I have had a great 4 years here and would definitely recommend the experience.

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I recently graduated from the University of Surrey (or UniS as they now like to call themselves after a logo re-design competition). I had a very worthwhile four years including a year in industry. I completed a course in Mathematics and Computing Science. I was initially attracted to the place because of the great idea of a placement year in industry and it's reputation as a good university and the best record for graduate employment after university - almost 97% apparently. Part of the high graduate employment record of Surrey is due to the fact that there is a campus-wide policy of including industrial placement periods in the courses and you are more than encouraged to do one. Anyway, a bit about the university. It is set on a campus environment which means all the facilities are there in one place. In the first year and possibly the final year you are given campus accommodation which makes it easy to live, have fun and study. Surrey is one of the better campus University's in the South East and has everything a student needs including sport facilities (cricket, rugby, hockey and football pitches), the music and performing arts building (with practice rooms), a shop, post office, launderette, the Union building and plenty of food outlets. It is very compact and takes about twenty minutes to walk around the whole campus. The library and computing facilities are also more than adequate. You are also only ten minutes walk away from Guildford station which has fast 40 minute services to London. Guildford itself although pretty poor on the club front with only three mainstream clubs has a wide variety of pubs and a vast number of stores. The Students Union is good although I hasten to add pricey but there's a good variety of club nights and they usually have a gig on every Sunday which features up and coming bands, examples that I watched were the Dust Junkys, I am Kloot, Campag Velocet and Mo Solid Gold. One of the biggest problems I had with the university, and Guildford in general for that matter is the cost of everything. I mean beer in the Union cost £1.80 which wasn't good. Admittedly they offered promotions here and there but they didn't go any way to make up for the high prices the rest of the time. Apart from this gripe I had some very good times there and would recommend the place. Also it is truly apathetic, by this I mean there is no real enthusiasm. We had poor turnouts at the university elections to choose sabbaticals and many sports clubs fold very quickly because of little support. Also the sunday band nights I was talking about earlier usually only get about 20 students turning up to - even though it's free of charge.

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First they change the in name to UniS after a logo competition, then they build part of a boat as the new European Institute of Health and Medicine Studies...and next they let the same architect build a train to go with it as the new on site accomadation block...not that that's going to well...to start with they had leaks and hot water where it should be cold, still it's the first privately owned accomadation so at least that isn't the uni's fault. Don't get me wrong I actually do like it here at Surrey Uni, it just seems that a lot of things are happening now that didn't when I first came here...I've been here for almost 5 years now after I had a year out in Finland to count for a 4 year course, then a knee injury so I had to come back and finish this final year thing again. I know I'm probably only seeing the worst of things but surely the first years have been getting worse each time??? They've even started flushing plastic bags down toilets causing serious problems with overflowing sewage in the campus site housing. Still it does seem that maybe SOME people are starting to be a little less apathetic and enthuse about the uni, some are even taking part in the University elections...though I wonder if we would still have the poor turnout to marches and strikes like we had around the No Fees demonstrations. That takes a little more effort and can be seen quite a way from the uni campus, you might even have to travel... RAG week....ARGH...don't even get me started, the only time RAG week was fully noticed was when a bunch of us in the biology dept in our second year did a lot about it...we even carried it on outside of the one week with a silly night at the union on Wednesdays...The union, now there's a safer subject, it's BIG, well compared with student population to sq ft it's bigger than any other student union in the country far as I'm aware. Ok so this year the entertainmen t committee haven't got everything quite right as far as bands go, and there is a problem of the prices being quite high...but that isn't the Union, that's the company that was running that side of things for them and as far as I can tell they're doing something about that. Countryside...there actually is quite a bit of that around the outskirts of Guildford, and the university campus and even the town itself are very green. Well kinda brown now as it's still wintry and muddy from too much rain and occassinal flooding...but hey that's mainly in the town center and we're on a hill...only a few houses here got hit badly by the weather and it's supposed to be sunny here MOST of the time...I'm not saying that it is, I tend to remember rain more than sunshine anyway so I don't know how accurate I am as regards memory and weather. Money wise, well you don't get as much grant or loan as in London although for some things you will be paying as much. However, the uni does manage to make some money for itself especially with it's pride and joy the Surrey satelites, my group come in next with lots of research grants and money etc for the School of Biological Sciences...in fact course wise I know that Surrey is good for science and engineering, seems to be good on social research too, has an extremely noisy music department though after the Christmas carol concert I'm not sure how highly I'd rate them ;o) Oh yeah one last thing, never, ever, whatever you do, rent your own house out to the university to rent it to students as your agent...I've heard many horror stories and have lived through one with my own house, they don't do too well at looking after the university managed properties.

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I was primarily attracted to Surrey Uni (or UniS to use its new, slightly corporate image) by the highly specialised music and sound recording degree course (The ?Tonmeister? course) it offered. Although possibly of limited interest to most readers of this review, its still worth mentioning this course. The course is world-renowned and highly respected within the specialised field of audio engineering. Since graduating, I have found myself in a well-paid job in an industry I'm highly likely to stay in for a long time. Part of the high graduate employment record of Surrey is due to the fact that there is a campus-wide policy of including industrial placement periods (usually the third year of a four-year course). This is how I found my way in to the industry and it certainly presented me with a big slice of reality - a chance to see how things would be outside of the comfortable university bubble that is so easy to stay within. The campus is very compact - it only takes ten minutes to walk across from one end to the other. This means you end up getting to know a lot of people very quickly - you don't feel like you're on your own for long after you see the back-end of your parents' car on moving-in day. You are guaranteed a room on campus during your first year and there is plenty of good accomodation not far from the Uni for during your second year. There is also quite a high possibility you?ll get a room on campus in your final year as well. The Students Union is good, especially as its now about three times the size as it was when I joined the university. There's a good variety of gigs that go on there, and if there's nothing going on, the town centre is just a short walk away. Guildford, reputed to be one of the richest towns in the UK, has a good variety of drinking-holes, clubs, cinema complex and shops. Going back to the campus, everything is pretty much on-site: Library, cafes, bars, Grocery shop (lets face it, basically an off-license to most of us), launderette, bank, sports complex - its all there. The station is not far away and trains take 40 minutes to central London, unfortunately on the South-Western Train line, but you can?t win them all. Parking is out of the question if you?re resident on campus, but parking permits are available for a small fee if you live off-campus. Despite all this crammed into a small space, the place still manages to be green and leafy - take a beer down to the lake in the summer and do some sun-bathing. The down sides? Well, as with anywhere there are some - the rooms in Surrey Court were built 1/3 smaller than they should have been due to an architectural cock-up, beware of the wheel-clamps, there?s some dodgy brand new architecture at the station end of the campus and the whole place can be noisy, Don?t let any of that put you off, because you?ll have a great time and get a good degree from Surrey. Well worth the tuition fee (not that I ever had to pay it - Sorry!)

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.. the title might seem out of place speaking about a university, but this was the impression I got when I first saw the pictures from the UniS campus in the prospectus. When they in addition had a course that appealed to me enourmously, what could I do but apply? Now I'm a second year, and not regretting this decision. I have made many new friends, and the academic atmosphere of this university is great. Apart from that, they have excellent halls of residences (open to first and final year students, basically) 5 minutes away from the lecture theatres. There are various facilities on campus. Computing rooms, Library, Launderette, hairdresser (grossly overpriced..),grocery shop (again, overpriced), gym, etc. The campus is fifteen minutes away from the town centre of Guildford, and 10 minutes from the train station which will take you to Waterloo station in London in just over 30 minutes (if you catch the right train that is.. be careful, or you'll end up spending 2 hours instead.) Guildford is a quiet town, but has all you need for daily life. And when London is that close, you can't really complain. All in all, this university can be highly recommended, and as said in the other comment left here, it's the university with the highest employment rate after graduation in the U.K.

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I fell in love with UniS (as it is fondly known by its students) even before I got here. From the prospectus, UniS looked so beautiful and it was the only university in UK to offer the course I wanted to do, Civil Engineering with Computing. It is situated in a traditional town, Guildford, which is 10 minutes walk from campus and is 40 minutes by train to London. I thought it was the perfect place to spend 3 years of my university life. It was one decision I have yet to regret. UniS is a campus university which is well established in many fields especially in Engineering and the Hospitalities. It is small, thus making it easy to get personal attention in classes; and to get from one end of the campus to the other. For the last 3 years UniS has had the lowest average unemployment rate of any UK university. It also has an excellent professional training programme. I've got friends who've gotten placements in South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, France, etc. There's a lot of skills training programmes which are free for all students. From learning foreign languages to getting help with dissertation/thesis writing are some of the skills offered. Through student development programmes, I've had the opportunity to help tutor Maths to Year 8 students in a local school. University accommodation is guaranteed to all first-year students and all overseas students throughout the duration of their studies. The accommodation are mainly on campus, within easy access of lecture theatres and classrooms. I've actually experienced waking up 15 minutes before a lecture was supposed to start and still managed to be on time for it as well. There's also a bank, grocery store, bookshop, restaurants, bar, and post office on campus. Tesco is just a 10 minute walk from campus as well. The student union building is one of the largest in the country. Many bands have played in the Union. Just recently (last week) the Brand New Heavies performed at the Graduation Ball (which started at 7 p.m. till 7 a.m. the following morning!). There's also a sports complex on campus, with gyms and weekly aerobic classes for the enthusiasts. The staff and students are friendly and I'm pretty sure one will feel at home almost instantly. I've made many friends from all over the world since I came here. Another fun thing which I've experienced is meeting the British royalty. The Chancellor of the university is the Duke of Kent and since I've been here the Queen and Prince Phillip has visited twice! Guildford is a relatively safe area. It's location made it quite an expensive place to live in. The living standards is just slightly lower than that of London. I've been to many university in UK. I'd still say that UniS is one of the best, academically and socially. Many of my friends are still here after the completion of their studies and many staff members have not been to any other university. I've completed my undergraduate and is now doing a PhD here. If it's not good, I wouldn't have stayed, would I?